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The sea surface microlayer (SML) at the air-sea interface is a distinct, under-studied habitat compared to the subsurface and copepods, important components of ocean food webs, have developed key adaptations to exploit this niche. [40] The ocean-spanning SML forms the boundary between the atmosphere and the hydrosphere.
The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor. A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton.
Food cycle is an obsolete term that is synonymous with food web. Ecologists can broadly group all life forms into one of two trophic layers, the autotrophs and the heterotrophs. Autotrophs produce more biomass energy, either chemically without the sun's energy or by capturing the sun's energy in photosynthesis, than they use during metabolic ...
Isopycnal mixing and diapycnal mixing work together to mix and ventilate the entire ocean. Isopycnal mixing is when surface waters moving into the interior of the ocean typically run horizontally, along the isopycnal layers, settling into their correct density-dependent layer [2]. This process is important for ventilating the ocean with oxygen.
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Marine life is affected by bathymetry (underwater topography) such as the seafloor, shoreline, or a submarine seamount, as well as by proximity to the boundary between the ocean and the atmosphere at the ocean surface, which brings light for photosynthesis, predation from above, and wind stirring up waves and setting currents in motion.
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The layers are often of varying depth with the layers near the top of the ocean being thinner than the deeper layers. This is because the features nearer to the surface happen on smaller scales. Z-coordinate systems have difficulties representing the bottom boundary layer and downslope flow due to odd diabatic mixing.